ficers) and it is good to hear the tone of
respect in which they speak of the American navy, as compared with
certain others.

The opportunities for similar companionship among the men of the armies
of the two nations are fewer, but when the allied forces entered China
the comradeship which arose between the American and British troops, to
the exclusion of all others, is notorious. Every night after mess,
British officers sought the American lines and _vice versa_. The
Americans have the credit of having invented that rigorous development
of martial law, by which, as soon as British officers came within their
lines, sentries were posted with orders not to let them pass out again
unless accompanied by an American officer. Thus the guests could not
escape from hospitality till such hour as their hosts pleased.

Some ten years ago military representatives of various nations were
present by invitation at certain manoeuvres of the Indian army, and
one night, when an official entertainment was impending, the United
States officers were guests at the mess of a British regiment. Dinner
being over, the colonel pushed his chair back and, turning to the
American on his right, said in all innocence:

"Well, come along! It's time to go and help to receive these d----d
foreigners."

An incident less obviously _a propos_, but which seems to me to strike
very truly the common chord of kinship of character between the races,
was told me by a well-known American painter of naval and military
subjects. He was the guest of the Forty-fourth (Essex) at, I think,
Gibraltar, when in the course of dinner the British officer on his right
broke a silence with the casual remark:

"I wonder whether we shall ever have another smack at you fellows."

The American was not unnaturally surprised.

"Why? Do you want it?" he asked.

"No; we should hate to fight you of course, but then, you know, the
Forty-fourth was at New Orleans."

It appealed to the American--not merely the pride in the regiment that
still smarted under the blow of ninety years ago, but still more the
feeling towards himself, as an American, that prompted the Englishman to
speak in terms which he knew that he would never have dreamed of using
under similar circumstances to the representative of any "foreign"
nation. The Englishman had no fear that the American would
misunderstand. It appealed to the latter so much that after his return
to the United States, being called upon